Soylent Green

Charlton Heston plays a cop in this 21st century science-fiction horror story. The setting is New York, teeming with 40 million citizens, most of whom are out of work. Environmental erosion is almost complete and voluntary death is encouraged by government-sponsored clinics. For their food, the people have grown to rely almost totally on a greenish, wafer-like substance called soylent. As Heston investigates the murder of a magnate in the dictatorial Soylent Company, he comes face to face with the hideous truth about the secret ingredient of "Soylent Green."

New York. 2022 A.D. Teeming with jobless, homeless people. Teetering on the edge of anarchy, the government rations synthetic food. Those who control the supply have unlimited wealth and power--as long as no one discovers the awful truth behind the source of Soylent Green.Academy Award-winner Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments)stars as Thorn, possibly the last honest detective on the undermanned police force, who investigates the brutal murder of a prominent member of the Soylent Company, manufacturers of the artificial nourishment.

This movie shows us our future if we continue multiplying as we do today. Vancouver is becoming overcrowded already. This movie shows that with an overgrown crowd all kinds of crises happen, and here it is shown that a biscuit ("soylent green") is made of dead men's bodies and given to the hungry crowd. It is also shown in this movie that voluntary medical execution of the old and sick is standard and the protagonist's old friend is executed in a pleasant way with a cocktail and nature's pictures and Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony being played while he passes away. And that this movie is not entirely a fiction, is proven by the fact that in 2015 the medically assisted suicide of old and sick (even of young and sick) has been made a law in Canada. The biggest danger for the Human Race is overpopulation, but at present the crowd grows uncontrollably, and what this movie shows us will come rather soon if we go on like this, using our freedom to do whatever we want, even if unreasonable. So individual freedom and city and family life forms cannot be maintained in the long run, and this movie here is an eye opener. The UN has foreseen this future and has created an "Agenda 21" which plans to end city life (and certainly all individual freedom) by the end of the 21st Century. It will not be put up for vote, for sure, and let's admit it, Democracy can be maintained only temporarily and not for long, because the Crowd thinks on a blindly, individually selfish way, which creates crises always, it's a matter of time only. If you want a confirmation of all of this, read Dr. John Coleman's book: "The Conspirators' Hierarchy" (1997, pages 140-145).

Just like Star Wars, The Matrix and Blade Runner - It seems that Soylent Green is yet another one of those humdrum Sci-Fi movies that one isn't allowed to dislike. And, even if one makes some legitimate complaints about said movies, you can bet that the little, cry-baby "snobs-of-cinema" here will automatically label you as a "nit-picker" - Yeah? Well, I'd rather be a "nit-picker" than a snivelling "nose-picker".

A classic. Keep in mind this is FICTION that was filmed in 1973. Anyone who expects completely realistic depictions in science-fiction will always be disappointed. These people will nit pick every movie out there and find something to complain about. This movie is about the message; how overpopulation, competition, and corruption can spoil our world.

I'm so glad I finally watched this old classic! Yeah, we all know the ending, and the film is unbelievably sexist (women's roles are only eye candy and sex objects - so utterly unimaginative and typical-of-the-era Hollywood), but I still found it to be an engaging movie with enough subtleties to keep me interested right to the end. And it had quite a line up of familiar old actors (in all their familiar old typecasting). I enjoyed it thoroughly.

There have been complaints here about the completely empty streets at night... if anyone cares to remember there was a nightly curfew and everyone HAD to get off the streets. Which also explains why all the stairways, the mission, etc, were packed with sleeping homeless people every night when "Thorne" was on duty. As to the lack of foresight into what "the future" might look like, Hollywood only had two versions at the time - either pretty much exactly like the era in which the movie was made, or all silver clothing and frisbee-shaped "space" cars. At least someone on this movie was clever enough to invent a cordless phone!!! And, yeah, hairpieces for balding men in the 70's were awful, even if they were movie stars.

This movie was both a blast from the past AND a glimpse of a dystopian future. Loved it.

Set in the future of 2022 (which seemed to be suspiciously deprived of technology's gadgetry) - Soylent Green (from 1973) was such a laughable piece of frivolous, Sci-Fi junk that it really should have been billed as a two-bit comedy.

When it came to the likes of genuine suspense and drama, to me, Soylent Green was about on par with that of a typical Care Bear cartoon.

With its story taking place in a (supposedly) over-crowded NYC of 40 million, this ridiculous, low-budget movie contained so many "empty street" scenes that the viewer would have to be a totally clueless, "hee-haw" hillbilly to believe that this city's population exceeded more than, say, 50 people, tops.

Oh, yes. And, speaking about Charlton Heston (and his phony-looking hairpiece), believe me, this total slug-of-an-actor was clearly too old for his part at age 50.

If I'm really expected to believe that the producers of this 1973, Sci-Fi production actually cared back then about the world's present state of mass pollution and over-population, then they sure fooled me, big-time.

I found this so-called "Message Movie", and its message, to be such a completely hypocritical contradiction that I'm convinced that the greedy, little production company who produced this picture was only interested in one thing - And that was - Making themselves (and their stars) a whole pile of money - And the rest of the world be damned!